This invention relates to hermetically sealed electrical connectors of the type usually comprised of a stainless steel shell having a glass insert therein in which electrical contacts of a nickel iron alloy composition have been fused into the glass insert at a temperature of about 1800.degree. Fahrenheit. The electrical contacts are then electroplated with a material such as gold or silver to reduce the resistance of each of the contacts.
The invention is more particularly related to an electroplating fixture which facilitates the electroplating of the contacts.
It has been a longstanding practice in the electroplating of electrical contacts of hermetically sealed connectors to wire together, by hand, each of the electrical contacts that are mounted in the glass insert. The hand wiring connects each of the contacts together so that they will be substantially uniform, resulting in substantially uniform plating in the electroplating process. In the electroplating process, since all of the electrical contacts are connected together, a potential applied to one of the contacts attracts the gold or silver in the electroplating solution to all of the contacts, plating them.
Obviously, one of the main disadvantages with hand wiring each of these contacts, which are sometimes about 0.039 inches in diameter and fifty in number, is the time involved in connecting them together which increases the cost of the connector. Further, those surface portions of each electrical contact having the connecting wire wound around them prevents the plating of the contact on that surface. This is evident after the electroplating process as there are large unplated surface areas where the wires were located. The unplated area, of course, has a higher resistance than the plated area that can affect the overall resistance drop between mated electrical contacts. Therefore, the present electroplating process procedures are time consuming, expensive and leaves undesirably large surface areas of the contact unplated.